2016/17 Taught Postgraduate Module Catalogue

GEND5108M Contested Bodies

30 creditsClass Size: 20

Module manager: Prof Ruth Holliday
Email: r.holliday@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 2 (Jan to Jun) View Timetable

Year running 2016/17

This module is approved as an Elective

Module summary

Philosophical, cultural and sociological theory frequently celebrates the mind at the expense of the body. However, as people we can only experience the world through our bodies and are perceived by others in our bodies. Body theorists have offered considerable challenges to a mind/ body split and have developed theories that make the body a central concept in social and cultural analysis. This module explores approaches to the body through particular theorists including Michael Foucault, Judith Butler, Elizabeth Grosz and Merleau-Ponty, and themes such as; bodies as commodities; the body and technology;bodies crossing borders,fat bodies; and body modifications such as beauty, exercise, slenderness, cosmetic surgery, tattooing, piercing and transexuality.

Objectives

On completion of this module, students should be able to:
- identify key theoretical concepts in the study of the body;
- understand the critical debates surrounding the gendering of the body;
- critically analyse bodies and bodily practices;
- review and critically appraise writing on the body;
- synthesise information and knowledge from a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives;
- use the above to produce a critical essay which addresses key arguments and debates within the study of the body.

Skills outcomes
During the course of the module students will also have the opportunity to:

- engage with a range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary viewpoints on the body;
- evaluate a range of methodologies deployed in the study of the body;
- develop an awareness of a range of theoretical perspectives and approaches to support further research in their specialist area;
- experience a range of teaching and learning methods;
- develop an awareness of key contemporary issues in theories of the body.

Syllabus

- Approaches to the Body: how are bodies interpreted, has this always been understood in the same way? How do bodies signify identity and how are they central to our experiences?
- What other ways of interpreting bodies could there be?
- How far can we change our bodies and the way others see them?
- Selling Bodies - human trafficking, mail-order brides, sex tourism and human organ sales.
- Reproduction and the body -, IVF, sperm donation, the male pill and the 'egg trade'.

- Men, masculinity and the body
- Fat bodies – gender, class and disgust
- Bodies at work
- Disability and the body – the social model and phenomenology
- Cutting Bodies - Cosmetic Surgeries.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Lecture	11	1.00	11.00
Seminar	11	1.00	11.00
Private study hours			278.00
Total Contact hours			22.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			300.00

Private study

Preparatory reading for seminars 11x 10 hours= 110
Preparation of essay 168

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Attendance at seminars
Participation/ engagement
Tutorials
1 x 6000 word essay

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Essay	1 x 6,000 word essay	100.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		100.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 20/02/2014

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